Abstract: A storage unit includes a support bar for hanging items and an RFID antenna provided within a predefined distance of the support bar. When the items hanging from the support bar are adorned with RFID tags, and the RFID antenna emits electromagnetic fields in a direction of the support bar, RFID signals identifying the items are transmitted from the RFID tags to the RFID antenna, thereby enabling a placement or a removal of an item to be automatically registered, or an accounting of the available items to be automatically performed. The RFID antenna may be a portion of a transmission line that uses shields and/or dielectric materials to shape the electromagnetic fields toward a predefined direction, and the locations of items bearing RFID tags on the support bar may be determined by varying the phase of the emitted radiofrequency and determining strengths of RFID signals when the electromagnetic fields are emitted at varying phases.

Abstract: A system configured to perform power normalization for voice enhancement. The system may identify active intervals corresponding to voice activity and may selectively amplify the active intervals in order to generate output audio data at a near uniform loudness. The system may determine a variable gain for each of the active intervals based on a desired output loudness and a flatness value, which indicates how much a signal envelope is to be modified. For example, a low flatness value corresponds to no modification, with peak active interval values corresponding to the desired output loudness and lower active intervals being lower than the desired output loudness. In contrast, a high flatness value corresponds to extensive modification, with peak active interval values and lower active interval values both corresponding to the desired output loudness. Thus, individual words may share the same peak power level.

Abstract: Embodiments presented herein disclose a VPN service which includes a cluster of VPN appliances that requires only an eventually consistent database to share VPN session data among cluster nodes. Doing so provides a VPN service that can scale both horizontally (i.e., the VPN service can support large numbers of VPN appliances) as well as geographically (i.e., nodes of the cluster do not need to be physically proximate to one another in order to satisfy latency requirements). Thus, the VPN service can provide regional endpoints to VPN clients that do not share common points of failure or administrative burdens.

Abstract: Techniques are described for providing managed computer networks, such as for managed virtual computer networks overlaid on one or more other underlying computer networks. In some situations, the techniques include facilitating replication of a primary computing node that is actively participating in a managed computer network, such as by maintaining one or more other computing nodes in the managed computer network as replicas, and using such replica computing nodes in various manners. For example, a particular managed virtual computer network may span multiple broadcast domains of an underlying computer network, and a particular primary computing node and a corresponding remote replica computing node of the managed virtual computer network may be implemented in distinct broadcast domains of the underlying computer network, with the replica computing node being used to transparently replace the primary computing node in the virtual computer network if the primary computing node becomes unavailable.

Abstract: Content, such as a video game, may be delivered by a content provider to a destination using, for example, streaming content delivery techniques. The transmission of the content may be monitored in order to determine transmission conditions such as a quality of the network connection from the content provider to the destination. The determined transmission conditions may then be used to determine adjustments to a complexity of various scenes associated with the content. For example, in some cases, when transmission conditions are unfavorable, scenes may be adjusted by reducing a complexity of the scenes.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for decentralized task execution that bypasses a task execution service are disclosed. A connection is established over one or more communication channels between a task execution interface and agent software of a compute instance. The agent software is executable to receive task execution documents from a task execution service and initiate local task execution based (at least in part) on the task execution documents. A task execution document is sent from the task execution interface to the agent software over the one or more channels. In sending the task execution document from the task execution interface to the compute instance, the task execution service is bypassed. Execution of one or more tasks is initiated on the compute instance by the agent software based (at least in part) on the task execution document.

Abstract: A metadata item may be generated that includes metadata content corresponding to a selected portion of digital content stored on a first device, the metadata item may be associated with a first user profile, and the metadata item may be distributed to a second user device storing the digital content such that the metadata item can be accessed via a second user profile and rendered on the second user device in association with the digital content. In this manner, metadata content corresponding to digital content may be shared across user profiles that access the digital content. In addition, a collaborative content item may be generated that includes collaborative content associated with a word or phrase in digital content and that is editable by multiple user profiles.

Abstract: A system and method for activating security mechanisms based at least in part on accelerometer-based dead reckoning wherein accelerometer data, reflecting acceleration in a local coordinate system of a device, is obtained from an accelerometer of a device. Movement of the device is determined based at least in part on the accelerometer data, and, based at least in part on whether the movement of the device exceeds a threshold value, a determination is made whether to change a current security state of the device. If it is determined to change the current security state of the device, the current security state of the device is changed to a new security state.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for centralized networking configuration in distributed systems are disclosed. Networking related metrics from a plurality of sources within a distributed system are obtained at a networking configuration server. A set of rules to be used to apply a network configuration option to a particular category of traffic associated with a node of the distributed system is determined based on the collected metrics and on networking management policies. A representation of the set of rules is transmitted to the node of the distributed system to schedule network transmissions in accordance with the networking configuration option.

Abstract: Technologies are disclosed for improving the availability of a distributed application by computing scores for the application that indicate the extent to which the configuration of hosts implementing the application complies with best practices for maximizing availability. One score can be generated for the application based upon the physical location of the hosts used to implement the application and the components upon which the application is dependent. Another score can be generated for the application based upon the number of data centers that hosts executing the application are located in as compared to a minimum required number of data centers. Another score can be generated for the application based upon the distribution of hosts utilized to execute the application across data centers. Operations can be initiated for improving the scores, such as migrating a host to a new rack or server, or migrating a host to a different data center.

Abstract: Techniques are described for managing communications between multiple computing nodes, such as computing nodes that are separated by one or more physical networks. In some situations, the techniques may be used to provide a virtual network between multiple computing nodes that are separated by one or more intermediate physical networks, such as from the edge of the one or more intermediate physical networks by modifying communications that enter and/or leave the intermediate physical networks. In some situations, the computing nodes may include virtual machine nodes hosted on one or more physical computing machines or systems, such as by or on behalf of one or more users (e.g., users of a program execution service). The managing of the communications may include determining whether communications sent to managed computing nodes are authorized, and providing the communications to the computing nodes only if they are determined to be authorized.

Abstract: Methods and systems for determining an intent of an utterance using contextual information associated with a requesting device are described herein. Voice activated electronic devices may, in some embodiments, be capable of displaying content using a display screen. Entity data representing the content rendered by the display screen may describe entities having similar attributes as an identified intent from natural language understanding processing. Natural language understanding processing may attempt to resolve one or more declared slots for a particular intent and may generate an initial list of intent hypotheses ranked to indicate which are most likely to correspond to the utterance. The entity data may be compared with the declared slots for the intent hypotheses, and the list of intent hypothesis may be re-ranked to account for matching slots from the contextual metadata. The top ranked intent hypothesis after re-ranking may then be selected as the utterance's intent.

Abstract: A system and method for improving the speed of generating a list of previously-uncounted items stored with a computing resource service provider. The system and method involve obtaining a set of keys from a data store, wherein each key of the set of keys corresponds to an item in a group of items, wherein a quantity of items in the group is uncounted. The system and method further includes generating a first sub-listing of keys based at least in part on a first key range of the set of keys by executing a first thread, generating a second sub-listing of keys based at least in part on a second key range of the set of keys by executing a second thread, combining the first sub-listing of keys with the second sub-listing of keys to produce a list of keys, and providing the list of keys.

Abstract: A block storage service can ensure volumes are placed in a same region as an attached virtual machine instance for performance and durability guarantees. A region can reference multiple things, but one example is that a volume is within a same spine as a virtual machine in order to meet performance guarantees. Each region can have a buffer of server computers held in reserve for volumes having a type where performance guarantees are required. If performance guarantees cannot be met, a rejection is transmitted to the customer. In another embodiment, the customer can provide a list in priority order of different volume types so that if a desired volume type cannot be placed, then alternative volume types can be used.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for disaggregated graphics asset management for virtualized graphics are disclosed. A virtual GPU attached to a virtual compute instance is provisioned in a multi-tenant provider network. The virtual compute instance is implemented using a physical compute instance, and the virtual GPU is implemented using a physical GPU. A plurality of graphics assets are added to a graphics asset repository. The graphics assets are associated with corresponding identifiers and access restrictions in the graphics asset repository. One or more graphics instructions are executed on the virtual GPU using one or more graphics assets corresponding to one or more identifiers associated with the graphics instructions. The one or more graphics assets are obtained by the virtual GPU from the graphics asset repository using the one or more identifiers.

Abstract: In an example, a processing device is provided. The processing device may be configured to determine whether to send a first version of a stream manifest corresponding to a received a selection of one of a plurality of stream variants of a video content asset. The processing device may be configured to, in response to determining to not send the first version, send a second different version of the stream manifest. In an example, the first version includes only a subset of a plurality of entries included in the second version and/or a bootstrap current media time that is different than an actual current media time.

Abstract: Techniques for performing command processing are described. A system receives, from a device, input data corresponding to a command. The system determines NLU processing results associated with multiple applications. The system also determines NLU confidences for the NLU processing results for each application. The system sends NLU processing results to a portion of the multiple applications, and receives output data or instructions from the portion of the applications. The system ranks the portion of the applications based at least in part on the NLU processing results associated with the portion of the applications as well as the output data or instructions provided by the portion of the applications. The system may also rank the portion of the applications using other data. The system causes content corresponding to output data or instructions provided by the highest ranked application to be output to a user.

Abstract: Idempotent processing of data may be implemented for data records retrieved from a data stream. A data stream may receive data records as input and distribute the ingestion, storage, and processing of the data records amongst one or more partitions of the data stream. Partition metadata may be maintained which includes checkpoint metadata for retrieving, processing, and sending data records in the data stream to a specified destination. When assigned a partition for processing, checkpoint metadata for partition may be accessed to determine whether a pending checkpoint for the partition exists. If not pending checkpoint exists, new data records may be retrieved, processed, and sent from the partition of the data stream to a specified destination. If a checkpoint is pending, then the data records identified by the checkpoint metadata as pending may be retrieved, processed, and sent to the specified destination.

Abstract: Described herein are systems and techniques for an event handling system capable of distinguishing between application or user-specific events and system-wide events. The described system may be further capable of suppressing event notifications associated with application or user specific events and escalating system-wide events. In some embodiments, the system may identify an origination source for a number of event trigger. The system may determine whether a number of trigger events associated with any particular origination source are over a threshold number of trigger events. Upon determining that the event is an application or user specific event, then the system may suppress a potential escalation of the event.